MUSIC IN AUSTRALASIA.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1815, 30 July 1913, Page 7

MUSIC IN AUSTRALASIA.

{. TRINITY COLLEGE EXAMINER'S VIEW. (By Telegraph— Special Correspondent.) Auckland, July 29. After an absence of five years Mr. Henry St. George, examiner for the Board of Trinity College of Music (London) is making another visit to .Now Zealand. Ho arrived this morning by the Vancouver boat and is looking forward with interest to his trip through the Dominion for which ho has a keen regard. For the past six years Mr. St. George has been encased in this examining work in tho colonies with only occasionally a flying visit to London. His present itinerary started with Newfoundland, iu the first week in June, and will conclude iu December at Tasmania. Naturally Mr. St, George has had exceptional facilities for Incoming acquainted with musical matters throughout Australasia. "Tho thing that has struck me most in Australasia," ho remarked this niorning_ on board the Alarama to a reporter, "is tho large amount of musical talent and temperament, and it seems to me that it reaches its highest point in Melbouruo and Dun«lin." Asked if there were any particular reason for Dunediu's superiority, he said the climato might possibly give the students more energy for their study and work. .Speaking of New Zealand as _ a whole Mr. St. George said he had noticed that tho work "tightened up" as ha went south. He was particularly interested 111 his present visit as he was anxious to tnko comparisons with what he had observed on his previous visits and see if the same conditions prevailed. When tho question was put to him as to whether he noticed any improvement in tho work from year to year the examiner said it was a most difficult matter upon which to give an opinion. He dealt with the same grades year after year—the students were continually coming up from below. Ho did not follow them further, so that it was practically impossible for liim to make any comparison in tho manner suggested. "One rhing, however, that I have noticed in tho colonial," Mr. St. George went on lo say, "is tho amount of temperament— the real musical feeling among tho players. Tho'same class of, English school girl plays coldly and mechanically. By comparison the Australasian girl plays distinctly with temperament. Sometimes she shows 100 much, but that is not a bad fault. You can tono down and check too much temperament much moro easily than you can build up or produce it. I think tho reason for this difference is duo largely to tho open air, free life in tho colonies. Here you liavo not tho personal reserve of the Englishman. It is just this reserve that so often discounts tho playing of English people. They aro afraid of 'letting themselves go' and giving expression to their feelings."